November 4, 2023 at 8:00 pm
Boston Baroque believes that Baroque and Classical music is music for all times. Founded in 1973 by Music Director Martin Pearlman, Boston Baroque has garnered a global reputation for its lively, groundbreaking, emotionally-charged performances and recordings that bring early music to life for modern audiences. Boston Baroque’s orchestra is composed of some of the finest period instrumentalists performing today, and is frequently joined by the ensemble’s professional chorus and by a roster of soloists who grace the world’s most renowned concert halls and stages. The ensemble performs Baroque and Classical music using period instruments and performance techniques that reflect the time in which the music was composed. Under Music Director Martin Pearlman’s charismatic direction, Boston Baroque remains a trailblazer in the field of early music. The organization was the first period instrument orchestra to perform at New York City’s Carnegie Hall, Los Angeles’ Disney Hall, San Juan’s Casals Festival, and numerous festivals in the United States and abroad. Boston Baroque has given numerous American period-instrument premieres including Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Don Giovanni, Rameau’s Zoroastre, the Boston premiere of Beethoven’s Fidelio, and the modern premiere of The Philosopher’s Stone, a recently-discovered singspiel composed in part by Mozart. The organization presented Boston’s first complete cycle of Monteverdi’s three surviving operas, with performing editions by Pearlman. The ensemble can be heard on the soundtrack to the major motion picture Face/Off featuring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage.
Boston Baroque has performed at major music centers across the United States, including Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles, New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and festivals at Ravinia and Tanglewood. Boston Baroque was the first period instrument ensemble to be invited to participate at the famous Casals Festival in Puerto Rico. The ensemble made its European debut in 2003, performing Handel’s Messiah at the prestigious Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival in Poland; it returned to Poland for the 2015 Festival, giving performances of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 and Handel’s Messiah.
The X-tet: Drawing membership from Boston Baroque’s world-renowned orchestra roster, the X-tet is the organization’s first-ever period string chamber ensemble. Core members of the X-tet include GRAMMY-nominated concertmaster Christina Day Martinson, assistant concertmaster Jesse Irons, and principal players Sarah Darling, violin, Jason Fisher, viola, and Michael Unterman, cello.